The curious case of Gloria's boob job

2nd UPDATE:

Arroyo admits she has breast implants

A spokesman of President Arroyo admitted Friday that Mrs. Arroyo had breast augmentation 20 years ago but denied reports that the implants were leaking.

Press Secretary Cerge Remonde earlier downplayed rumors that Mrs. Arroyo had checked in at the Asian Hospital in Muntinlupa City to have her breast silicone implants removed and replaced.

The press secretary later changed his tune and admitted that Mrs. Arroyo did have breast augmentation 20 years ago but that the implants were not leaking.

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1st UPDATE:

OMG, I am speechless and I can't breathe! This beats Bubble Gang. The Palace has made a statement on Arroyo's... um, breasts: "Let the thing speak for itself."

See Palace won't confirm, deny if Arroyo had breast implants.

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About four months ago, at a dinner gathering, this guy with a connection to the press announced that Gloria Arroyo had a boob job. It took a huge amount of control not to throw out the food I was eating due to fits of laughter.

An Inquirer writer was with us and everyone prodded him to write about it as it was a scoop. But alas, he was beaten to the punch...

... by Manila Bulletin of all dailies:

via Stella Arnaldo

Yes, Manila Bulletin, whose banner headlines are usually as mundane as "Today is Rizal Day."

Initially, it looked like Bulletin's website was hacked: the story wasn't tight as tidbits on the boob augmentation was scattered in different paragraphs. (And wouldn't the boob job be your headline?) But eventually, another story on the matter surfaced in the Internet, this time from The Philippine Star's website. In Jarius Bondoc's column, Gotcha!:

"Wednesday dawn Arroyo checked in again — for less serious causes. She needed mammoplastic repair of leaking breast implants done in the ’80s. Occasion too to have doctors take out an inguinal cyst (in the groin), and laser off extra hair growth in that area and the armpits. Though a bit groggy, Arroyo was set to check out yesterday afternoon."

I'm not judging: there's nothing wrong with having breast implants or removing unwanted hair. However, let's just say the opposition and critics of the administration is bound to have a field day.

Exception

Makati Representative Teodoro Locsin is easily one of the funniest solons in Congress.

His quotable quotes on the looming failure of automated elections:

"... anyone with half a brain would know they (Smartmatic) did their best and suddenly this guy (TIM president Jose Mari Antunez) becomes unreasonable.”

and

“You can’t link TIM’s withdrawal to the administration because the administration has backed up automation 100 percent. In fact, the opposition in the House and the Senate have opposed automation and in a way they got what they wished for.

“Maybe he just wanted to extract money but we as lawyers don’t want to think like that so we have to ascribe the influence of the opposition to automation.”

From Gil Cabacungan Jr.'s report, Solon: P500-M demand did it

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In other news, I don't get the point of the photos that accompany Inquirer website's banner story, Inquirer Politics launched on INQUIRER.net.



Uh... why the mugshots?

The article also does not have any link to the newly launched section, which is over here.

Extra large

I am now an XL, rendering my clothes unwearable. (I can still wear L but for some reason, I now have an aversion toward slim-fitting shirts. I want my clothes loose-fitting and even baggy.) This is disastrous news, considering I've amassed a huge heap of clothes over the years.

I'm considering just buying the same solid black, white, gray and other dark-color shirts over and over again, like a default uniform. At least, I don't have to think of what I'd wear every morning. There's this guy in the office who has been wearing the same black shirt since my first day at work (so that would be 5 years). I'm only getting his point of view now.

"Of course they do."

LOL! Funniest Transformers movie review ever, done in Q&A format.

A sampling below (spoiler alert):

If they wanted to protect Earth, why did they leave the Matrix on the planet? They're a space-faring race, they could have hid it anywhere in galaxy! Second of all, what the fuck does making a tomb of their own bodies do? Shouldn't they have stayed alive to protect the Matrix? Or finish off the Fallen? Or just not die and leave Earth and the entire Transformer race in jeopardy?
Uh...

And why hide the Matrix at all? Don't they need Energon to survive? Didn't they say they go to other lifeless planets? These idiot Primes just doomed their whole species for no fucking reason whatsoever! No wonder the Decepticons are so pissed.
...ahem. Eventually, Sam and crew find the Matrix, which instantly crumbles into dust. Sam puts the dust in a sock because he thinks it will bring Optimus back to life.

Grr.
What follows is the most spectacular part of the movie, as Sam and Mikaela try to run the several miles back to the military camp during a massive Decepticon attack where the military has dropped Optimus Prime's corpse.

Why is that awesome? They could drive back in one of the Autobots and be there in a minute or two.
They don't do that.

What?
They walk.

Of course they do. And I assume the Autobots just mysteriously disappear again until a second before a Decepticon is about to kill Sam.
Yes. Exactly.

I am already incredibly sick of this movie, and I'm just typing questions about it. Sam resurrects Optimus, Optimus kills the Fallen, end of story, right?
Pretty close. Sam dies, though.

Really?
Yeah, for a little while. But then the Transformers in heaven send him back because he still has work to do.

Fuck you.
I'm serious.

Fuck you. There's no way.
It's true. The 6-7 Primes are there in the clouds like Mufasa's head in The Lion King, and tell Sam he's awesome and he needs to live again so he can bring Optimus back to life.

I may be ill.

Full Q&A here. Via Drei.

A day in the life of a hypocrite

Sanford (Governor of South Carolina; recently discovered to having engaged in an extra-marital affair --j) voted to impeach Bill Clinton during the Monica Lewinsky saga. According to The Post and Courier of Charleston, Sanford called Clinton’s behavior “reprehensible” and said, “I think it would be much better for the country and for him personally” to resign. “I come from the business side. ... If you had a chairman or president in the business world facing these allegations, he’d be gone.” Remember that Mr. Sanford?

And this kind of hypocrisy isn’t confined to the politicians. It permeates the electorate. While conservatives fight to “defend” marriage from gays, they can’t keep theirs together. According to the Census Bureau’s Statistical Abstract, states that went Republican in November accounted for eight of the 10 states with the highest divorce rates in 2006.

-- The Prurient Trap by Charles M. Blow, The New York Times

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I personally still have misgivings about gay marriage; I see "marriage" as a religious rite, and therefore, the religion administering the rite has the right to place restrictions on who can/cannot get married. However, I think the law -- which in the Philippines is separate from the Church, as in other democratic countries -- should be all-encompassing, and therefore, acknowledge gay unions.

Bakery

Sure, we've all heard of and seen 6-pack abs, even 8-pack ones. But my gulay, how many are these, 12????

At the John Galliano Men's show

via Ohlala Mag

Transformeek

When I started reading movie reviews of Transformers 2, I knew the movie was going to bad. I figured it's an entertainment movie -- perhaps, the critics found the storyline too shallow -- and I prepared myself for it.

But cheesewiz, I never expected it was going to be that bad.

It was bad. Bad, bad, bad.

Jessica Zafra and her friends were right: it was corny. It was so corny I kept rolling my eyes and questioned myself as to why a 28 year-old like myself would subject himself such a mind-numbing script. (By the way, I know how not to take things seriously; I'm a guy who loved Drag Me to Hell.)

The problem with Transformers is its overly complex storyline; it was so complicated some scenes became downright ridiculous. I mean, come on, a bunch of robots actually do a ghostly apparition?!

The producers should have just stuck with a simple plot and let the battles/fight scenes do the rest of the talking -- anticipating those were the only things that kept me from walking out (aside from the relatively astronomical movie ticket price).

Of course, my review, or any review for that matter, won't stop you from watching it. I just thought I'd add to the warning :-P

Just Always Pray at Night

Eep -- I'm so excited! Pageant Director Ines Ligron gives a sneak peak of what Miss Japan will be wearing at the Miss Universe pageant in August. (As you've probably guessed by now, I'm a huge Miss Japan fan.)

Note that these are Versace. Off the runway.



The rest are in Ines's blog.

The first one is what she'll use in the preliminary interview. According to her, it is important that the interview outfit creates an impact. Interviewing about 90 girls is a boring and tiring task for the judges; the candidate has to immediately impress them even before she speaks.

And here's the peg for her national costume. Kita panty -- I love it, lol!



Details on this are also in her blog.

Japan for the win!!!

Vitamin C

I've been generally impassive about the A(H1N1) virus. Despite the growing number of cases in the Philippines, I'm somehow reassured by the Department of Health.

(By the way, have you ever noticed how the DOH keeps on downplaying the virus? When it first entered the country, it said don't worry, it's just mild. When the number of cases kept of increasing, it said don't worry, there's no community-level outbreak. When there was a fatality, it said don't worry, the victim died of complications and because of preexisting conditions. Now that there's a community-level outbreak in Metro Manila, it said don't worry, qualifying the phrase as a "low-level" community outbreak. A conspiracy theorist would probably dislike the DOH now, but I'd like to be sane and just believe them, period.)

In any case, I started drinking natural orange juice, and as I blogged before, shifted to Veggie Juice. (I've had issues with Ascorbic Acid and Vitamin E tablets after having read this.) When those ran out, I came across this in the grocery aisle:


Citrus Farms Calamansi Concentrate
photo: www.pinoygrocery.com

I checked the sticker on it and found that the the 750ml bottle was only P22.90. The Veggie Juice costs around P60 per liter. I thought I'd buy five but decided on three when I considered the total number of grocery bags I'd lug home.

The line to the cashier was loooong. It took me ages to reach the counter. When I did, the cashier scanned the calamansi juice and I was a bit shocked when the balance of my purchases was jumping by the hundreds.

I ended up with about four times more than how much I thought I'd rack up. I checked my receipt and saw that that the calamansi juice concentrate actually costs about P160 per bottle. The "22 9" I saw was actually the expiration date, grr.

So yeah, I bought P500 worth of calamansi. I also thought, how on earth did they squeeze the juice out? By hand? Gaah.

When I reached home, my family realized that it was actually juice concentrate so you have to mix every one part with 10 parts water. It also had honey, so it was thick and syrupy. It was actually nice and quite economical, so the price is worth it. Apparently, this product is for export, and based on google search, Filipinos overseas find them hard to find.